Hi DT-Community,
I’m working on a writing project that requires reading a lot of PDF resources.
I’d like to store a page from a PDF in DEVONthink and either tag or categorize it so I can easily retrieve it for writing.
I used Endnote years ago for academic purposes, but I don’t need citations now. I only need to mark a page in a PDF document for a chapter or topic I’m writing about, so I can always retrieve it later when I need it.
Thanks!
one thing I have found: I can copy a page link. E.g., it will be in the form of:
“x-DEVONthink-item://02BA…”
but then I need to manage link → subject relation outside of the DEVONthink. I’d like to keep it all in one app. Is there a way to tag one single page of a pdf document which I have open in DT?
I’m not sure what you mean here about managing the link outside DEVONthink. You don’t have to use item links outside our application.
And no you can’t add a tag to a page in DEVONthink.
But you’re not providing enough information on your process to answer fully.
thanks for the quick reply, as always, Jim!
my process:
I am writing on the subject “A”.
I read (directly in DT), PDF documents on this subject. I find useful information in one of the pdfs; I want to make a note of that page (either screenshot the whole page, copy the contents and, ideally, link to the original document) and tag this as “subject_A”.
so, when I select the “subject_A” tag, I can see all the information, I have saved during my research / reading in DEVONthink.
You could make use of the script @troejgaard provided us. Define for example a category ‘Literature Note’ in the script – or if you’d use script for this sole purpose even leave the categorisation part out of the script and let the file name be created directly with [Literature Note]. The script opens the note, names the file based on the source file with the category in square brackets added to the end of the name and even puts a link to the created note file into the annotations file that is associated with the pdf.
While reading the pdf in DT, you could then invoke the script via Keyboard Maestro (or another application or via the script menu) and have the note file open alongside the pdf. Then you could copy the page link and paste it along with your comments in the created markdown file. You could tag the note file with your project identifier to easily find it again.
To collect all the notes, you could create a smart group that searches for both “Name contains [Literature Note]” and the Tag of your project identifier to have them all together.
I am currently trying to accomplish something similar to do research for my dissertation project.
EDIT: If you need the files outside of DT, you could index a folder from your file system and let a smart rule move (or even better: replicate) all notes with that identifier (+ the tag of your project if you want to narrow it down to only files regarding your project) to the indexed folder. This way the note files are even available to use “outside of DT”.
EDIT2: Sorry for the many edits, I was developing my thoughts while typing.
It’s nice that you find my script useful enough to recommend it to others 
You never mentioned what your use case was, though. In the context of PDFs, this might be a better fit. I suggest both of you take a look:
If that’s a bit too much for you, my script could easily be modified to link to the current page (instead of just the file) when invoked on a PDF.
Are you looking to do something more atomic, akin to how Zettelkasten works?
I think it is very useful!
Deliberately annotating pdfs is one workflow scenario but I am also building a workflow for reconstructive image analysis that is comprised of several specific analytical steps. In combination with another script snippet that you added that embeds images in the notes via markdown syntax, I can now easily create corresponding notes and use the category field to specify the particular analytical step via one shortcut.
Before that I used a template group with the files pre-populated which was okay, but I had to manually copy and paste the links to the images into the documents. I create ‘annotated’ images (for this method I need to draw lines and figures onto the image or separate the visual layers) in Curio and can embed the analytical markdown documents alongside the image as so-called file-backed-text figures/aliases on the canvas.
Now I can actually just start ‘drawing’ in the image, export these ‘annotated images’ to DEVONthink and can create the note documents and can start writing down my ideas. Later I am planning to import the notes into Tinderbox for further analysis.
With your script the links between the analytical notes and the respective images are even ‘engraved’ in the image files via annotation document. This is really helpful!
Edit: also thank you for pointing to the script by @msteffens. I see lots of potential there, as well
I’m not very much familiar with zettlekasten, but something like that could work. Although, my use case is, perhaps, too simple for that.
But one way to do that in DT might be:
Set up a new “zettlekasten” database in DT; create a new note, and inside that new note, link whatever pdf pages I need (using internal DT links).
I need to check, though, if it will work
Personally, I would start with an annotation file and take notes on the PDF. You can click the popup menu and use Insert Quote to add selected text to comment on.
You could potentially just add hashtags by those specific quotes and search for them as text later.
@anton The approach BLUEFROG outlines above is probably the simplest, so it’s not a bad idea to start there and see how it works for you.
It is possible to export individual PDF pages, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Especially when it’s so easy to link to locations within a PDF.
@analogue_man I really appreciate you taking time to give that description!
My script does have broader application than the one by msteffens. Even for PDFs there is still a difference between more general notes and working specifically with PDF annotations, so they could both be useful. (And I don’t think they have any conflicts, though I’m not 100% sure.) The cool thing about msteffens’ script is that it turns PDF annotations into individual notes you can easily filter by tags or other criteria.
Jim, which “pop up” menu are you referring to…? I can’t seem to find it (and same for the “insert quote”). Could you please point me to it?
p.s. I’ve tried your other approach (“paste with the source link”) and it does help, thanks! I’ve created a new note, and just pasting with the source from the pdfs I’m reading.
Here’s what I found:
I’ll stick to this approach or copy with the source into a new note. I’ll think of other strategies (perhaps involving other apps) to structure my research/writing more in the future.
thanks, everyone!
Jim, in this example: #bestpractices tag is not “interactive”? that is, it’s not clickable, correct? it only helps with searching, right?
Correct. Hashtags are just words, not links.
However, if the command or setting to convert hashtags to tags is enabled, the document will have it as a tag. You will then be able to search for it as a tag.
